1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic equipment capable of storing a battery, such as a digital camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an oxide coating, oil stain etc. formed on an electrode terminal of a battery often causes poor conduction. Therefore, it is necessary to scrape off such foreign matters formed on the electrode surface of the battery by using, for example, a file.
However, such a scraping process is a burden and usually a tedious chore for a user. Therefore, it is desirable to have a battery storage structure that can provide the same effect as scraping off the electrode surface of the battery with a file, during a series of operations in which the battery is loaded into the electronic equipment and then a battery cover is closed.
Conventionally, on a contact member provided in a battery compartment of the electronic equipment, a contact portion for contacting the electrode surface of a battery is formed in a sharp shape, such as a pin, and the contact portion and the electrode surface of the battery come into contact with each other by the pressing force caused when the battery is loaded in the battery compartment. Such a structure is often applied to, for example, the electronic equipment requiring for a high voltage.
In recent years, with the use of high-specification electronic equipment, power consumption tends to increase. In the electronic equipment driven by batteries, it is required that the operating time of the electronic equipment should not be shortened even at higher power consumption. Particularly, although digital cameras temporarily require a high voltage, most of the digital cameras use AA-size batteries as a power source. However, when such AA-size batteries are used, it becomes more important to repress the voltage drop of electronic equipment caused by poor electric conduction, and to decrease contact resistance.
However, since a conventional contact portion has a shape (a pointed shape) that deeply comes into contact with the electrode surface of a battery, that is, the contact portion sticks to the electrode surface of the battery when the battery is loaded into the battery compartment, the contact portion does not slide on the electrode surface of the battery by the force alone generated when the battery is inserted into the battery compartment. Thus, it is difficult to effectively remove an oxide coating, oil stain, etc. formed on the electrode surface of the battery. Further, when the battery comes into contact with the contact member, the battery abuts on the wall surface of the battery compartment with a slant angle to the direction in which the battery is inserted by a large frictional resistance between the electrode surface of the battery and the contact portion. As a result, the contact pressure between the electrode of the battery and the contact member of the electronic equipment decreases, which consequently increases the contact resistance therebetween.